Denver Mayor Mike Johnston plans to travel to Washington, D.C. this week – his second in as many months – to press White House and federal officials for a concrete solution to the illegal immigration crisis that’s threatening to consume hundreds of millions of dollars of the city’s budget. 

Denver’s mayor earlier said if the current influx of immigrants persists, the city could be spending $180 million this year. In the past year, the city burned through $38 million to accommodate the more than 37,000 immigrants who illegally crossed America’s southern border and arrived in Denver. 

Worried about how to pay for the immigrants’ food and shelter, Johnston asked the city’s agency heads to evaluate their budgets and come up with up to 15% in cuts.  

Johnston is headed for D.C. to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ three-day winter meeting that starts on Wednesday. About 250 mayors from across the country are expected to attend the event, where immigration, along with housing and homelessness and public safety, will likely take center stage.

In a news release, the mayor’s office said Johnston will meet with White House and administration officials, congressional members, and fellow mayors to “pursue solutions that will help manage this crisis, including increased work authorization, a coordinated entry program, and more federal dollars for cities.”

Biden administration officials hosted mayors at the White House last November to discuss how to manage the soaring number of immigrants who have been arriving at America’s interior cities, one day after those leaders sent a letter asking for more federal help.

Johnston and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson met with White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and Homeland Security Department officials before heading to Capitol Hill for meetings with lawmakers.

“I had a good series of conversations,” Johnston, who led the coalition, said of the November meeting. “I think we shared our sense of urgency and we shared this belief that we need funding, but really what we want is a longer-term solution.”

Other Democratic mayors who signed the letter to President Joe Biden included Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Sylvester Turner of Houston and Eric Adams of New York.

Biden has requested $1.4 billion from Congress to help state and local governments provide shelter and services for migrants, after earlier pleas from Democratic mayors and governors.

But Johnston and the other mayors have asked for $5 billion, along with making work authorizations available quicker and to anyone who is allowed into the United States. They also pitched an approach to managing the immigrants, mirroring how Ukrainian refugees were settled.

Johnston said many people are in shelters and straining budgets because they lack the ability to work. If they could work, the cities would require less federal aid to help house them, he said. 

Local officials have speculated immigrants are drawn to Colorado’s most populous city because of its relative proximity to the Mexico border, while others believe its status as a “sanctuary city” is drawing them to Denver.

The tens of thousands of immigrants who illegally crossed America’s southern born and ended up in Denver have amplified the city’s rampant homelessness, resulting in an unprecedented crisis that has already cost a combined $83 million – $45 million to house the city’s own homeless population, plus $38 million to accommodate the immigrants – and left councilmembers “desperate” for a solution. 

The councilmembers echoed Johnston’s warning that the city faces a breaking point. Some worry that the mayor’s cost projection will ultimately be insufficient. One local official acknowledged that Denver’s image as a “welcoming city” has “consequences” – but because the city cannot stop the influx of immigrants, it has translated into a “feeling of powerlessness.”

“We are desperate for federal help,” District 5 Councilmember Amanda Sawyer told The Denver Gazette. “I’m concerned about having to come to a financial point where we might have to reduce services that we’re providing to our tax-paying residents.”

Denver mayor tells agency heads to ready budget cuts to pay for $180M cost of immigrants

The Denver City Council, which holds the city’s purse strings, said the immigration and homelessness crises have put the city under tremendous fiscal strain. 

“We also want to be a welcoming community,” Sawyer said. “The problem here at the end of the day is the federal government has failed us 100%.”

The mayor’s $180 million projection translates to more than $500 per Denver household, according to a report from the Common Sense Institute.

The report said if Johnston’s projection played out in real time, it would equal the budget of the Department of Community and Behavioral Health by January at a cost of $15 million. By March, spending could reach $44.1 million, equal to the funding for the Denver District Attorney’s Office.

It would reach $59.8 million by April, the same amount as the Department of Transportation’s operations.

By July, the expense would stand at $103.2 million – the same amount as the funding for Denver County’s jail operations managed by the sheriff.

By September, it would equal all of transportation and infrastructure spending at $135 million.

By October, the spending would hit $152.2 million, the amount allocated for the Denver Police Patrol Districts Division.

And, by December, it would reach $181 million, equal to the funding for the Department of Parks and Recreation and Cultural Facilities, plus the Office of Human Services, the report said.

The projection doesn’t include spending by nonprofits, hospitals and emergency systems, the report said, adding that Denver Health, for example, noted a surge in the number of patients from Central America.

Sawyer, the councilmember, fears that Denver’s spending on the immigration crisis will likely exceed Johnston’s $180 million estimate.

“We have taken the position that we are a welcoming city to everyone,” Sawyer told The Denver Gazette last week. “Yes, that has consequences. We accept those consequences. To accept those consequences, but not have any ability to change the situation we’re in right now, gives me a feeling of powerlessness.”

Homeless and jobless, immigrants ask Denver City Council to help them get work permits

Reporters Nico Brambila and Noah Festenstein, and the Associated Press, contributed to this article.